In baseball, a sacrifice fly is a batted ball that satisfies four criteria:
- There are fewer than two outs when the ball is hit.
- The ball is hit to the outfield (fair or foul), or to infield foul territory.
- The batter is put out because an outfielder (or an infielder running in the outfield, or foul territory) catches the ball on the fly (alternatively if the batter would have been out if not for an error or if the outfielder drops the ball and another runner is put out).
- A runner who is already on base scores on the play.
It is called a "sacrifice" fly because the batter presumably intends to cause a teammate to score a run, while sacrificing his own ability to do so.
Famous quotes containing the words sacrifice and/or fly:
“When there is a choice about it, a great sacrifice is preferable to a small sacrifice, because we compensate ourselves for a great one with self-admiration, which is not possible with a small one.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“who would fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscovered country from whose bourn
No traveler returns, puzzles the will,
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)